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These days, it can feel like you’re nobody if you’re not killing it on social media. With folks habitually checking Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, it’s as though your life on the web means more than what’s really going on in your day-to-day. And being a social media influencer is the new popular—you’re not cool if the world isn’t following your page…and following your lead. As you’re able to reach millions of people with the click of a button, your online profile is a kind of power the world has never seen before. Recently, filmmaker and spoken word artist Prince Ea received the Social Influencer of the Year Award at Black Enterprise’s first-ever Black Tech Awards and addressed using that power for good. It was everything. If you don’t know Ea, he was featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 this year, as well as Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 , and he’s pretty well known for his life tips. Case in point: “Life Tip #144: The people who are meant to be in your life will always gravitate back towards you. No matter how far they wander.” He’s also got a over a billion views on Facebook and Youtube. Needless to say, he was a shoe-in for the award and now he’s gone viral yet again for what he had to say as he got up on that stage to accept the honor. After thanking Black Enterprise, he told the crowd: “That word ‘influencer’ is interesting to me because it’s like we’re influencing people to do what, right? A lot of people call themselves ‘social media influencers’ but you’re influencing people to do what? Is it to reach a level of beauty that is not attainable naturally? Is it to have people lust after cars or material objects that will never bring somebody true happiness?” He continued, “When you get pulled over and you’re drunk they say ‘you’re under the influence.’ A lot of people are intoxicated by what these influencers put out there. When you get sick what do they say? ‘You’ve come down with influenza.’ A lot of people are ill because of what what these influencers put out there. So I just have one question for every influencer, because we’re all influencers, and that question is: when people come to your page, do they walk away better or worse?” It was an incredible point to make. “I have chills from his words. Very genuine, wise and he takes his influence seriously. He’s accountable for his actions, global reach and content being produced. Wooooow! Thank you! ,” one fan @ danisocali commented. Swipe left to watch his speech up top and let us know your thoughts on what it means to be an influencer in 2018? [ione_media_gallery src=”https://globalgrind.cassiuslife.com” id=”4274794″ overlay=”true”]
